NASHVILLE, Tenn. — From dirt to baseball: Winter meetings are supposed to be fun.
At best, the meetings are a combination of spending orgies and exchange meetings. The 2023 edition of the “Shohei Delay”, on the other hand, is colossally boring, to the detriment of a sport that should attract worldwide attention with the surprise signing of the game’s biggest star. that, virtually the entire industry is on hold, waiting for the sphinx-like Ohtani to choose his next team and – be still my beating heart – perhaps even offer public comment for the first time in months.
The fault goes beyond Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo, whose devotion to secrecy ranges from refusing to divulge the type of elbow surgery Ohtani underwent to refusing to provide the name of his dog . The bigger problem is the nature of baseball’s offseason, which lacks deadlines and, by extension, urgency. Players, agents and teams procrastinate as they please, even if it means sucking the air out of the massive Gaylord Opryland Hotel at a time when hundreds of media members are gathered to advertise the sport.
Ohtani and Balelo are not obligated to make a deal this week and trigger a cascade of signings and trades. But you know what? They should be. The biggest names to change teams so far during the meetings are Alex Verdugo, Jarred Kelenic And Kirby Yates. The only one of these players that most casual fans would recognize is Verdugo, who went from Red Sox At Yankees Tuesday evening at a rare exchange between the rivals.
Free agent reliever Kirby Yates is in agreement with the Rangers on a one-year contract, pending a physical, source says @TheAthletic.
-Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 5, 2023
Fans want moves. Fans follow the stars. But the lack of important information is causing excessive attention to insignificant developments, like the one that occurred earlier Tuesday, when Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts actually caused a stir by recognizing Ohtani as the team’s “top priority” and revealing that club officials recently met with the Japanese superstar for nearly three hours at Dodger Stadium.
Nothing Roberts said appeared to violate the collective bargaining agreement, which states that teams cannot disclose to the media the substance of contract discussions or comment on the value of an unsigned free agent. Nothing he said should dissuade Ohtani from taking the Dodgers’ $500 million or whatever the amount is, no matter what Balelo has told clubs about the importance of remaining discreet.
Roberts’ mistake, if it can even be called such, was speaking publicly about Ohtani when other teams clearly take great care, to the point of absurdity, to honor the secrecy request from the Ohtani camp. Even then, who cares? Does anyone seriously think Ohtani will avoid the Dodgers because their manager talked about a meeting that anyone with half a brain assumed would happen anyway?
The real problem here is bigger than Roberts and the Dodgers and even Ohtani. The real problem is that Major League Baseball, a league without a salary cap, consistently fails to deliver the frenetic offseasons common in cap-based leagues such as Major League Baseball. NFL, NBA And NHLwhere teams have little to spend and must act quickly to fill holes.
A cap is not necessary in baseball. Even with chronic disparities in income between big and small clubs, the sport generally functions just fine without such a club. But some type of trade deadline would create the dud action fans crave, adding not only entertainment value but also boosting ticket and merchandise sales. And, uh, isn’t one of the goals of Hot Stove season to drive business?
Baseball actually gave a glimpse of what could be the rush that occurred before owners locked out players on December 1, 2021. Max Scherzer signed a recording contract with the Dishes with an average annual value of $43.3 million. Corey Seager And Marcus Semien joined the Rangers for a total of 500 million dollars. Dozens of other free agents also changed teams before the transaction freeze took effect.
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The league, according to sources informed of the discussions, proposed in 2019 a deadline for multi-year contracts that would occur each year on the Wednesday of the meetings. The players’ union, after having held lengthy discussions internally and with agents, rejected this idea. On the players’ side, the feeling was almost unanimous. The union systematically opposes any restriction of the free market. He also fears that the delays could push some players to accept below-market transactions.
The pre-lockout madness in 2021, however, resulted from the equivalent of a deadline. And in reality, baseball could bring about change in several ways. One possibility would be a deadline for exchanges at the end of the winter meetings. Another solution would be to set December 15 as the deadline for all transactions, with activities resuming on February 1. A third would be to extend the qualifying offer deadline, giving players until the end of the Winter Meetings to either sign with a new team or accept the offer. OQ.
The tension created by signing deadlines could work in players’ favor, causing teams to panic and award larger contracts. It could also produce a trickle-down effect for lesser free agents. Again, the experience of 2021 should be instructive. What if a restructured offseason generated greater interest in the game, hello? All parties would benefit.
As for Ohtani, the secrecy of his free agency isn’t really a surprise. This is how he prefers it, dating back to his days in Japan. This is also how Balelo prefers to operate, to maintain control. Agents never want media coverage of the process to affect the outcome of the process. Balelo is not the only agent to operate in this manner. Perhaps on instructions from his client, he is simply going to the extreme.
We understood. Ohtani is a unique player with a unique personality. But just as the league has adopted on-field rule changes to add to the entertainment value of the sport, the “Shohei Delay” demonstrates the need to adopt measures to make the offseason more attractive.
These winter meetings are no fun. From Earth to Baseball: Find a Better Way.
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(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani, whose free agency has shut down the entire baseball industry: Kyodo via Associated Press)
